Quilt of the country Flashcards
disparate
essentially different in kind
fragmentation
discordant
unrelated; out of place
fragmentation
pluralistic
having multiple parts or aspects
fragmentation
interwoven
intermingled; combined
unity
diversity
variety of different ethic or cultural groups
fragmentation
coalescing
coming together in one body or place
unity
According to “A Quilt of a Country,” how is the United States similar to a quilt?
It is intended for all people, no matter their nationality, ethnicity, or religion.
What is meant by “ America is an improbable idea”?
It reflects how America is united despite its many ethnic groups.
That’s because [the United States] was built of bits and pieces that seem discordant, like the crazy quilts that have been one of its great folk-art forms, velvet and calico and checks and brocades.”
in this sentence, what difficulty or contradiction in American identity does the comparison of the quilt most clearly help Quindlen capture?
Because the pieces that are united in a quilt can be dramatically different, the comparison captures both the diversity and unity of the United States.
According to the Mario Cuomo conundrum, what ideals are in “constant conflict” in the United States?
Community and individualism
Which of the following is the effect that Quindlen creates by repeating the word enormous in this sentence from “A Quilt of a Country”?
Perhaps they understand it at this moment, when enormous tragedy, as it so often does, demands a time of reflection on enormous blessings.
The effect is to help the reader shift from one idea, tragedy, to its opposite, blessings.
In “A Quilt of a Country,” what point is the author making when she discusses her father’s old neighborhood in Philadelphia, “in which Jewish boys would walk several blocks out of their way to avoid the Irish divide of Chester Avenue”?
Conflicts and divisions between immigrant groups have appeared throughout history.
According to Quindlen, how have people’s attitudes about her being a product of a mixed marriage changed over time?
before: it was incendiary;
nowadays: it is quaint
I was the product of a mixed marriage, across barely bridgeable lines: an Italian girl, an Irish boy. How quaint it seems now, how incendiary then.
In what way does this quotation most clearly help the author meet her purpose in writing?
It uses her own experience to illustrate a key point about American identity.
According to Quindlen, other countries often handled deep ethnic division by:
dividing into nations with new names
As explained in “A Quilt of a Country,” how did the two world wars and the Cold War unite the people of the United States?
They provided a common enemy upon whom Americans could focus.
What does the author of “A Quilt of a Country” believe is the most likely reason that many Americans accept new immigrants to this country?
Americans accept new immigrants because they are a reminder of how Americans’ immigrant ancestors adapted to American life.
Read the following quotation from “A Quilt of a Country.”
And there is a grudging fairness among the citizens of the United States that eventually leads most to admit that . . . the new immigrants are not so different from our own parents or grandparents. Leonel Castillo . . . once told the writer Studs Terkel proudly, “The old neighborhood Ma-Pa stores are still around. . . . Ma and Pa are now Korean, Vietnamese, Iraqi, Jordanian, Latin American. They live in the store. They work seven days a week. Their kids are doing well in school. They’re making it.”
How does Quindlen “patch” together, or link, the citizens and the new immigrant populations of America in the quotation?
by claiming that most Americans can see how the new immigrants are very similar to their own immigrant ancestors
What main message is the writer trying to communicate in “A Quilt of a Country”?
It is amazing that a country made up of such diverse people can be united as one nation.
